Nick Moberly (Mood Disorders Centre, University of Exeter).
Be careful what you wish for: Personal goals and psychological distress.
Personal goal pursuits provide structure and meaning to life and contribute to affective and cognitive experience. Control theory (‘cybernetic’) accounts suggest that negative affect and rumination signal that rates of progress on important goals are unsatisfactory. Motivational models of psychopathology implicate reduced approach goal motivation in depression and heightened avoidance goal motivation in both depression and anxiety. This talk outlines several studies investigating characteristics of personal goals that are associated with psychological distress in both student and clinical samples. In addition to research examining the approach/avoidance orientation of goals, I will describe studies that examine psychological distress in terms of the specificity of goals, the motives that drive goal pursuit, the broader organisation of personal goal systems, and the relationship between goals and ruminative thought. Although the causal status of these relationships has not yet been fully elucidated, I conclude by outlining how these findings may be relevant to current treatment approaches.
Friday 7th June 2019.
12.30 – 1.30
Herchel Smith Building on the Forvie site at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, CB2 0QQ.
http://c2ad.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/location/.
Please note that no registration is required for this event, and that parking is limited.